Lose the Capes.

by Kevin Cortez
Nathan Bulmer is an author with a great taste for humor, pulling influence from cartoons and comedians, and churning out their absurdity through his daily comics. His work can be seen in MAD Magazine, Time Out New York, Seattle Magazine, and The Comics Journal, as well as his daily webcomic blog, Eat More Bikes, which you can also get some of in a collection (as I did for this review). This comic is definitely for fans of Ren & Stimpy, Adventure Time, and MAD Magazine, providing clever writing and quick-laughs within the span of six, or less, panels.

And six panels is all that Nathan really needs. Eat More Bikes is all about setting up a situation and ending it with a very clever joke and very abruptly. Bulmer will throw readers a two-page strip, but that's very rare, as most of the jokes and comics here are told in the six-panels-or-less format and provide insane gags and off-the-wall ideas that'll have you laughing to tears.

I honestly cracked up for a good five minutes after reading the short titled "The Huskies." The time spent on reading every comic strip is definitely less than thirty seconds, but the punchlines hit so hard with Bulmer, it's as if Pendleton Ward delivered a Mike Tyson uppercut to the reader's face full of absurdity and PG-13 curse words. Some shorts involve very cartoony gags and situations. There's a situation with a baby who has its eyes popped out of its sockets explaining his story to a bartender in "Hey Barkeep," a duck dressed as a sheriff in the aptly named "Sheriff Duck," and a broken television that melts into a giant creature in "Roof Party." Crazy, odd, but still concise enough to give the reader a big chuckle.

I think what strikes me the most about Eat More Bikes is it being a great introduction to comics with humor and something to show other friends. It's abrupt way of delivery is such a great way to pull someone in to the comics world, especially with it's quick pace of humor and charming, simple drawings. It's straight-up humor writing filtered through a comics lens. Nathan Bulmer is definitely one of the finest comedians the medium has to offer.

TL;DR: Nathan Bulmer's Eat More Bikes is a terrific display of comedy and simplicity, effortlessly providing hilarious punchlines every panel it has the opportunity to.